I'm looking for some advice for a trip for my wife and I over the fourth of July weekend. She has limited backpacking experience on trails, but we are looking for a 3 day / 2 night trip as a practice run for the High Sierra Trail in late August. For her to have fun, I think it would all have to be class 1, on trail travel, with minimal snow travel and stream crossings. We are looking for a trip with approximately 8-10 miles a day and less than 2000ft gain in a single day. We are open to any type of destination, as long as we aren't traveling through a region with a lot of recent fire damage. Loop or out and back trips are great; but we don't want to do a shuttle. We are coming from LA, so trips in the southern sierras would be better. We will NOT be traveling with a dog.

A good choice for the holiday would be into the John Muir Wilderness from Florence Lake up the trail along the San Joaquin River which goes through an immence U-shaped glacially carved canyon. Elevations are only 7.5k to 8.5k so you won't have to do much vertical and snows will have all melted as it tends to be a warmer zone. The canyon bottom is flat in many areas making for easy camping just about anywhere. As an option you could vector up the Piute Creek Trail at the 8 mile point that ought to have impressive whitewater. Thus you can go as far as you think your wife feels comfortable with and then simply wander off the trail towards the river for a spot. Often beginers can only go a few miles before the weight of a pack starts to bother them. You would need to take the ferry across the reservoir.

The road over Kaiser Pass and the resort is now open. Of course you will also need to get a wilderness permit from Sierra National Forest and since that is a quota trail I would highly recommend getting a reservation and not a walk up as it is a holiday.